Sierra Nevada Essayists

BA, English, Dartmouth College

MA, English Education & Curriculum Development, Stanford University

CLAD, credential in English, Mills College.

Katie teaches English composition: Writing and the Environment and Educational Issues, communications, Principles of Interdisciplinary Studies, Service Learning , Senior Portfolio and a variety of other courses in the Humanities Department. She also teaches mountaineering and telemark skiing at the college.

Under the auspices of University of California, Berkeley, she designed and founded a literacy and leadership program, Adventure, Risk and Challenge (ARC) for high school youth. In 2011, she received the LL Bean Outdoor Hero award for her innovation with this program. A former outward bound instructor, she has taught mountaineering, rock climbing, backpacking, expeditionary canoeing and backcountry snowboarding courses across the United States for over a decade. She has worked with teachers, families, adults, youth in a range of 1 week to semester long expeditionary courses. She also taught English at Berkeley High School and English Language Development (ELD) at Sierra Mountain Middle School in Truckee.

At Sierra Nevada College, she is currently the Chair of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program and the advisor of the First Generation Club. Katie combines her academic focus in communication, writing and integrative learning with her passion for outdoor adventure education with her commitment to social justice and providing access to educational opportunities for all students. Through collaboration with faculty across departments, Katie has helped to build SNC’s Interdisciplinary Studies program. She hopes to bring active learning, service learning, communication skills, and integrative thinking to the college community and to inspire students to get out into the community to make a difference.

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Within its 150-year history as a state, and even earlier, Nevada has attracted writers.

Some – Mark Twain, Robert Laxalt, Walter Van Tilburg Clark – gained national attention. Others wrote specifically for a local audience.

Here, in no particular order, is an informal catalog of books about Nevada or written by Nevadans. There are many more, of course, but this list is a generous sampling of what's available.

There are biographies, oral histories, novels, and histories. Some are out of print, some are recently published contemporary works.

If they're no longer available in book stores, check the local libraries or online book sites. Explore on your own and you'll find many more.

This list is an even hundred. There's lot of good reading here and something to be learned about Nevada, its 150-year history and its people in every one of them.

Call it a "Nevada book bucket list."

"Roughing It" Mark Twain. This romp across the American West includes Samuel Clemens' transformation into Mark Twain and his adventures on the Comstock.

"The Oxbow Incident" Walter Van Tilburg Clark. Law and order and mob rule define this novel of the West by one of the first two writers named to the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.

"City of Trembling Leaves" Walter Van Tilburg Clark. Besides being "The Biggest Little City," we are "The City of Trembling Leaves." It's long and it's dense, but it's a Reno story.

"Sweet Promised Land" Robert Laxalt. This nonfiction account of a father-and-son journey to the father's Basque homeland is the touchstone of Nevada literature.

"The Man in the Wheatfield" Robert Laxalt. A classic novel of good versus evil in the high desert of Nevada. Laxalt is one of the first two writers named to the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.

(Photo: RGJ file )

"The Roar and the Silence" Ronald James. A comprehensive history of the Comstock Lode and the people who lived it.

"Woodsmoke, Wind and the Peregrine" Shaun Griffin. As a Northern Nevadan, Griffin's poems are full of familiar images and memories, and his work is memorable and enticing.

"The Last Horseback Lawman: The Story of Sheriff S. Graham Lamb, Humboldt County" Curtiss Kull. Humboldt County Sheriff Lamb defined law enforcement in in turn-of-the-20th-century Nevada. He died in the line of duty.

"Crank" Ellen Hopkins. Hopkins fictionalized an account of her daughter's struggle with methamphetamine to make a best-selling book for young adults.

"Parallel to Paradise: Addiction and other Love Stories" Laura Newman. A collection of 14 stories full of characters who are at once basic and unique, humorous and dark.

"The Motel Life" Willy Vlautin. A Portland, Ore., resident born and raised in Reno, Vlautin's first novel is an unsettling Northern Nevada tale of two down-and-out brothers.

"Battleborn" Claire Vay Watkins. A University of Nevada, Reno graduate, Watkins made her splash with this book of short stories.

"You Came Back" Christopher Coake. UNR professor Coake's novel is an unusual mix of mystery, the supernatural and the love between a parent and child

"The Phantom Stallion" Terri Farley. This is the first entry in a young-adult book series with a national audience of horse-loving girls that turned the author into a wild horse advocate.

"Reno Now and Then I and II" Neal Cobb and Jerry Fenwick produced this pair of photo albums with then-vs.-now photos of Reno landmarks and people.

"Land of the Buckaroo: Historic Ranches of Western Nevada" Holly Walton-Buchanan. A comprehensive look at western Nevada ranching, from the 1850s to the early 20th century and beyond.

"Son of a Gambling Man: My Journey from a Casino Family to the Governor's Mansion" Bob Miller. Former Nevada Gov. Miller provides a close-up look at growing up in Nevada gaming and politics.

"Mending the Moon" Susan Palwick. When Melinda Soto is murdered in a Mexican resort, her best friends and her son shoulder a terrible grief that ties them together in ways that change their lives in this novel.

"Cold Deck" by H. Lee Barnes. Jude Helms has worked as a casino dealer in Las Vegas for years in this novel. When he's offered a part in a cheating scam, he thinks he can back out when he has enough money. He's wrong.

"The River Underground: An Anthology of Nevada Fiction" edited by Shaun Griffin. Some of Nevada's top writers contributed to this diverse compilation.

(Photo: RGJ file )

"Sunland" by Don Waters. Sid Dulaney smuggles prescription drugs from Mexico to Arizona to help cut costs for his grandmother and other seniors at an assisted-living center in this novel.

"Calamity Jane" by Bernard Schopen. In this novel, Jane Harmon, an unconsciously self-centered woman, comes to Nevada, determined to make a film about the "Real West" using an aging former Western star.

"Songs of Mourning and Worship" Bruce Laxalt. Robert Laxalt's lawyer son wrote poetry filled with longing during his long battle with Lou Gehrig's Disease

"The Donner Party Chronicles" Frank Mullen. The ultimate history of a doomed wagon train, detailed from primary-source diaries, newspaper accounts and other sources.

"Johnson-Jeffries: Dateline Reno" Guy Clifton and Ray Hagar. This comprehensive look at the "fight of the century" in 1910 covers the controversy surrounding the two fighters as well as the Reno of that era.

Owen McKenna mystery series. Todd Borg. Borg's protagonist, McKenna, is an "everyman" detective with no super powers, but a talent for solving mysteries.

"Grind" Mark Maynard. The eight short stories in "Grind" are Nevada snapshots with characters familiar to all, from the homeless man feeding his breakfast money into a slot machine to Patrick's demented railroad memories.

"Waiting for the Cars" Howard Goldbaum and Wendell W. Huffman. In the mid-1860s, photographer Alfred A. Hart chronicled the Central Pacific Railroad in stereoscopic images. Goldbaum and Huffman present them to 21st century readers.

"The Gold Rush Letters of E. Allen Grosh and Hosea B. Grosh" edited by Ronald James and Robert Stewart. The letters detail life in the West, including pre-Comstock era Nevada, its hardships and small graces.

"There Ain't No Fences" Harold Jacobsen. This memoir of Jacobsen's youth as a member of a pioneer Nevada family details the challenges of ranching in the high desert in the first half of the 20th century.

"The Understory," Elizabeth Leiknes. A planned trip to a rainforest as a way to heal broken human connections forms the heart of this novel.

"Bombast: Spinning Atoms in the Desert" Michon Mackedon. The history of what has been written and said about Nevada, its people, geography and culture to make it the nation's nuclear Ground Zero is the substance of this book.

"Basque Aspen Art" Phillip and Jean Moore Earl. The couple became captivated more than 40 years ago by a unique style of folk art found in the aspen groves of the Eastern Sierra.

"Friendly Fallout 1953" Anne Ronald. Ronald examined a series of 1953 tests, researched the stories of the people involved with and affected by the "knothole-upshot" tests, and blended her research with her imagination in this novel.

"Cave Rock: Climbers, Courts, and a Washoe Indian Sacred Place" Michael Makley and Matthew Makley. A look at the Washoe tribe's successful attempt to ban rock climbing at the South Shore site at Lake Tahoe.

"I Shot a Man in Reno" Caleb Cage. Cage has taken this line from Johnny Cash song personally, analyzing its importance as a referendum on the directions of country music and as an essay on Reno's live music scene.

"Playa Works: The Myth of the Empty" William Fox. In this study, Fox writes about the world's emptiest spaces, the playas of the Great Basin.

"The Big Bonanza" Dan DeQuille. A friend and coworker of Mark Twain in Virginia City, DeQuille's history of the era is very large and very all-encompassing of the Comstock era.

"The Nevada Adventure" James Hulse. This durable history of the Silver State has remained in print for three decades and through six editions.

"Lost Legends of the Silver State" Gerald B. Higgs. Some 16 legends from Nevada's past are explored, along with some rare illustrations.

"Nevadans" Rollan Melton. Selected columns from 1978 to 1988 by this noted Reno-Gazette-Journal writer and former newspaper editor make up this intriguing collection.

"Nevada Ghost Towns and Desert Atlas" Stanley Paher. This two-volume set for Northern and Southern Nevada takes desert lovers anywhere they want to go in the Silver State.

"Mirage-Land: Images of Nevada" Wilbur Shepperson. This is one of many volumes about Nevada written by one of the founders of the University of Nevada Press and helped create the Nevada Humanities Committee among other accomplishments.

"Nevada: True Tales of the Neon Wilderness" Jim Sloan. Wild horses, Joe Conforte and other Nevada essentials turn up in these stories.

"Money and Power: The Making of Las Vegas and its Hold on America" Sally Denton and Roger Morris. A close look at the influence of Las Vegas, its violence, and the impact of drugs, the Mob and the CIA.

"Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the 21st Century" Hal Rothman. Everything about Las Vegas comes under Rothman's keen appraisal in this sturdy cultural history.

"Sharks in the Desert" John L. Smith. Another look at Vegas, from mob-run gaming to the current big names in the industry.

"Mountain City" Gregory Martin. It's a real town with a handful of citizens in Elko County. Martin's treatment is affectionate and enlightening.

"50 Miles from Home: Riding the Long Circle on a Nevada Ranch" Carolyn Dufurrena and Linda Dufurrena. This mother-in-law and daughter-in-law writer/photographer team has created a heartfelt yet clear-eyed account of life on a family ranch.

"Nevada's Black Rock Desert" Sessions Wheeler. Wheeler writes this history with an eye toward the desert's beauty as well as its ancient, foreboding aspects.

"Reno's Big Gamble" Alicia Barber. A journey through Reno's changing fortunes from the Comstock era forward and the connection between its reputation and development.

"As Long as the River Shall Run: An Ethnohistory of the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation" Martha Knack and Omer Stewart.

"Ordeal by Hunger" George Stewart. This is the first go-to history of the Donner Party tragedy.

"Unforgettable Flight" Moya Lear. Long-time Reno resident Lear's memoir of her life with the brilliant and mercurial Bill Lear, inventor of the Lear Jet.

"I Want to Quit Winners" Harold Smith Sr. Another gaming pioneer, Smith recounts his history and that of Reno's Harolds Club.

"Sarah Winnemucca" Sally Zanjani. The definitive history of the woman who is one of the two Nevada people enshrined in the federal Statuary Hall in Washington D.C.

"Temptations of St. Ed and Brother S" Frank Bergon. This western tale, at times humorous, at times not, involves monks, government villains, a nuclear test site and an order to vacate property.

"Nevada" Clint McCullough. Meade Slaughter, the main character in this novel, meets everyone who was anyone in Nevada gambling, including Bill Harrah, Pappy Smith and Bugsy Siegel on his way up the ladder of success.

"Life Among the Piutes" Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins. One of Nevada's great historical figures, Sarah Winnemucca released this book in 1883, the first book ever published to be written by an American Indian woman

"Amerikanuak: Basques in the New World" William Douglass and Jon Bilbao. This history studies the Basques work and culture in America. Douglass helped start the Basque Studies Program at the University of Nevada, Reno.

"A Doubtful River" Robert Dawson, Peter Goin, Mary Webb. A discussion of water in the arid West, its uses and the needs involved, some down to the facts of the Truckee River.

"Bombs in the Backyard" Costandina (Dina) Titus. In this study of atomic weapon testing in Nevada, Titus reviews policy issues and cultural history that affected Nevadans and their neighbors over six decades.

"This is Burning Man: The Rise of a New American Underground" Brian Doherty. Considered by some to be the best chronicle of the annual Burning Man festival, it provides the spirit, flavor and people of the event.

"Basin and Range" John McPhee. One of the great nonfiction writers of this age, McPhee tells a mesmerizing story of the landscape, geology and culture of the Great Basin.

"Trappings of the Great Basin Buckaroo" C.J. Hadley. The publisher of Range magazine celebrates the creative arts that produce spurs, boots, saddles and other buckaroo gear.

"Virginia and Truckee: A Story of Virginia City and Comstock Times" Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg. The two men published this history of the historic V & T in 1949 as part of their efforts to revive Virginia City.

"Survival Arts of the Primitive Paiutes" Margaret Wheat. Geologist/anthropologist Wheat chronicled the Paiutes desert culture and life through their weaving, hunting and food-gathering skills.

"Washington Gone Crazy: Sen. Pat McCarran and the Great American Communist Hunt" Michael Ybarra. This examination of a controversial era showcases McCarran's immense power in the Senate during those years.

"Goldfield Hotel: Gem of the Desert" Patricia Cafferata. Years after it welcomed its last guest, the hotel still stands as part of the central Nevada's storied history.

"Pogonip Magic" Karen Collett Wilson and Susan A. Zerga. This story, told in photography and prose, develops the charming relationship between a cat and a deer.

"Barbara F. Vucanovich: From Nevada to Congress, and Back Again" Barbara Vucanovich and Patricia Cafferata. This memoir from one of Nevada's women lawmakers offers years of highlights of Nevada history.

"Through the Glass Ceiling: A Life in Nevada Politics" Sue Wagner This oral history by former lieutenant governor Wagner, covers political issues, campaigns, her family, and her roles and ideas as a woman legislator.

"A Man of His Word: The Life & Times of Nevada's Senator William J. Raggio" Michael Archer. This authorized biography moves from this long-serving state senator's ancestry through his Reno childhood and his law and Senate careers.

"Black Rock" Peter Goin, Paul Starrs. This study of the Northern Nevada desert uses Starrs' essays and Goins photos to look at the desert's elements and its history.

"The House on Breakaheart Road" Gailmarie Pahmeier. Poet and teacher Pahmeier writes about the little incidents in life that might seem insignificant but nod wisely at us from a distance.

"Going Through Ghosts" Mary Sojourner. Both the friendship and the love are altered by a gruesome and violent murder. Both eventually are saved and cemented in this novel of Southern Nevada.

"Pipestone: My Life in an Indian Boarding School" Adam Fortunate Eagle. Fallon artist and activist Fortunate Eagle recounts his 10 years growing up in an Indian boarding school in Minnesota and its impact on his life.

"The Complete Nevada Traveler" David Toll. After many editions, this book is a first choice for many people looking for something in the Silver State they might have missed in their wanderings as well as for Nevada novices.

"The Best of Cobbwebs" Ty Cobb. A collection of 50 years of columns by the venerable Reno newsman and Virginia City native.

"The Main Event" Richard O. Davies. The University of Nevada, Reno history professor chronicles the history of boxing in the Silver State.

"The Constant Conversation" Joe Crowley. The longest-serving president in University of Nevada, Reno history takes an academic look at the office.

"Roadside History of Nevada" Richard Moreno. The former Nevada magazine editor offers up a buffet of historical tidbits for Nevadans and its travelers.

"Roughing It" Mark Twain. This romp across the American West includes his adventures on the Comstock.

"The Oxbow Incident" Walter Van Tilburg Clark. Law and order and mob rule define this novel of the West by one of the first two writers named to the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.

"City of Trembling Leaves" Walter Van Tilburg Clark. Besides being "The Biggest Little City," we are "The City of Trembling Leaves." It's long and it's dense, but it's a Reno story.

"Sweet Promised Land" Robert Laxalt. This nonfiction account of a father-and-son journey to the father's Basque homeland is a touchstone of Nevada literature.

"The Man in the Wheatfield" Robert Laxalt. A classic novel of good versus evil in the high desert of Nevada. Laxalt is one of the first two writers named to the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.

"The Roar and the Silence" Ronald James. A comprehensive history of the Comstock Lode and the people who lived it.

"Woodsmoke, Wind and the Peregrine" Shaun Griffin. As a northern Nevadan, Griffin's poems are full of familiar images and memories, and his work is memorable and enticing.

"The Last Horseback Lawman: the Story of Sheriff S. Graham Lamb, Humboldt County" Curtiss Kull. Humboldt County Sheriff Lamb defined law enforcement in turn-of-the-20th-century Nevada. He died in the line of duty.

"Crank" Ellen Hopkins. Hopkins fictionalized an account of a daughter's struggle with methamphetamine to make a best-selling book for young adults.

"Parallel to Paradise: Addiction and other Love Stories" Laura Newman. A collection of 14 stories full of characters who are at once basic and unique, humorous and dark.

"The Motel Life" Willy Vlautin. A Portland, Ore., resident born and raised in Reno, Vlautin's first novel is an unsettling Northern Nevada tale of two down-and-out brothers.

"Battleborn" Claire Vay Watkins. A University of Nevada, Reno graduate, Watkins made her splash with this book of short stories.

"You Came Back" Christopher Coake. UNR professor Coake's novel is an unusual mix of mystery, the supernatural and the love between a parent and child.

"The Phantom Stallion" Terri Farley. This is the first entry in a young-adult book series with a national audience of horse-loving girls that turned the author into a wild horse advocate.

"Reno Now and Then I and II" Neal Cobb and Jerry Fenwick. The duo produced this pair of photo albums with then-vs-now photos of Reno landmarks and people.

"Land of the Buckaroo: Historic Ranches of Western Nevada" Holly Walton-Buchanan. A comprehensive look at western Nevada ranching, from the 1850s to the early 20th century and beyond.

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Book cover of “Roughing It” by Mark Twain. (Photo: RGJ file )

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